In 2008 Paul Westerberg celebrated his 49th birthday with a record entitled 49:00. It was up for grabs on Internet music stores for 49 hours, it runs at around 49 minutes and the price was 49 cents. It was just one mp3 track, a mess of (possibly) 49 songs mixed, interleaved into one insane listening experience. More structured songs are mixed in with short snippets. The most shockingly, some songs end prematurely or begin from the middle. It’s maybe rough, but this record is a diamond. It’s (sadly) beautiful, it’s Paul at his wildest. Paul doesn’t just remind us here of why we love Replacements so much, he sends a convincing signal that he has a lot to say. Obviously, he will be over the hill in 2009, but this record shows that we have nothing to worry about.
Category Archives: Reviews
1. Paul Westerberg – 49:00 … of Your
2. Alejando Escovedo – Real Animal
Rock’n’roll veteran Alejandro has a story to tell. The story is about his life and his job – a rock’n’roll musician. He gave it all to his calling, and the calling took it all away. After a serious battle for life (versus hepatitis c) a few years ago, Alejandro emerged stronger than ever. In 2008, rejuvenated Alejandro with help of Chuck Prophet and producer Tony Visconti, put his life story in a form of an oldfashioned rock record (double LP if you got the vinyl version). And it’s a great record that will turn classic. Time will show, I’m sure.
3. Endless Boogie – Focus Level
Here’s a Brooklyn band that is a complete antithesis to a standard New York City band. They are not pretty, they don’t wear designer clothes, they pretty much stick to just one chord through the wole song, they named themselves after a Johnny Lee Hooker record, their singer makes pig sounds as he sings. They don’t even have a website and their only myspace friend is Tom… And this is all great. New York, the world, we all need this band to remind us what the true value of rock’n’roll is.
4. Gentleman Jesse And His Men
Jesse Smith, a gentleman with a band, is a total retro. Their self-titled album is an excercise in stlye. This album sounds like it was recorded in 1979 on Stiff Records. And I didn’t know any better, I’d be totally fooled. After the first listen I wondered (and I still haven’t figured out) how they were able to draw such a convincing ’70s sound. Props to the producer Dave Rahn (from a little known Atlanta band Carbonas on Goner Records). And then you start noticing that Smith has a songwriting talent that can actually stand head to head with all those great works of Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, Clive Gregson, Elvis Costello…
5. Dirtmusic
When Chris Brokaw, Chris Eckman and Hugo Race decided to form a trio, their main objective is to learn from each other, share experiences as artists and musicians. As you can imagine, when you put three great authors together in an unusually creative situation, great things happen. The idea was to turn to conservatively traditional forms musically and expand them with touching and deeply personal experiences. And honestly, results are so strong that yours truly was driven to tears on track 10.
6. Brimstone Howl – We Came In Peace
Omaha band Brinstone Howl took upon themselves a seemingly impossible task to fuse The Cramps with Flannery O’Connor. With help of Jim Diamond behind the knobs, We Came In Peace is a stellar proof of their successful result. Now, how in the world Rod Sterling fits into the whole picture (a third name that the band cites as an influence on their myspace page), I guess you will have to find out by listening to their music. Omaha is a twilight zone where all those crazy influences converged into one.
7. Tim Lee – Good2b3
Tim Lee is a southern gentleman with a respectable career in rock’n’roll behind him. He started out in Mississippi’s own new wave outfit The Windbreakers. Like all proper things that come from the south, Tim’s new wave was deeply rooted in rock’n’roll traditions while still being always fresh. Forward thinking college rock crowd at the time embraced The Windbreakers as a rare jewel and the band kept their cult status throughout the years. Tim also had a very special interstate adventure with Matt Piucci when they gathered Gone Fishin’ recorded a great lost masterpiece Can’t Get Lost When You’re Goin’ Nowhere in 1987. But, much like his friend Steve Wynn, Tim Lee is experiencing a new, exceptionally strong artistic inspiration in past several years with his new trio Tim Lee 3. Baring the sound down to the bones – bass, guitars and drums with added confessional lyrics to top it all, Lee and his trio deliver a straight-forward rock with honesty rarely found today and any day. The new album Good2b3 (Paisley Pop Label 2008), is third in row aimed at the same direction. What adds extra oil to this burning hot platter is contribution from Susan Bauer Lee, bass player of the band and Tim’s wife, who contributes as an author and performer as much as Tim does on this new album. A special credit for this record definitely goes to its engineers Craig Schumacher and Chris Schultz who run Wave Lab Studios in Tucson AZ and who are obviously responsible for capturing the greasy, Crazy-horse-like, live sound of the band.
8. Drones – Havilah
Unbelievably good new album by the Australian band Drones has all ingredients of a classic album. Gareth Liddiard, the leader of the band, leaves here a very strong mark as the main author, with a series of excellent song that appear abstract on their surface. But when you dig deeper, the songs are very concrete and in a strange way even storytelling. Only those stories appear to be from some really deep and dark place. But what’s best about this band, there’s absolutely nothing “droney” in their music. In fact, it’s very angular, dynamic and drenched in the rock’n’roll history as much as it’s original.
9. Thee Oh Sees – The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In
This San Francisco band sounds as if they were from the Memphis garage scene, if there was no a bit of their Californian irony in the whole mix. Guitar experimentation and inspired songwriting puts them very high on our list this year.
10. All The Saints – Fire on Corridor X
One of most exciting new bands in the past year comes from the South. But this is not a typical southern deal. Noisy, precise and serious arrangements, with a dose of gothic mystery but also a touch of shoegaze and grange, sounds more British than Southern. But it also doesn’t sound out of place on legendary label Touch And Go which helped the band rise from obscurity.